Re: JY1 SK

At 07:20 AM 2/7/99 -0500, docfester <KD4SFD@mindspring.com> wrote:
>CNN is reporting that King Hussein of Jordan, JY1 has died.
>He shall be missed......
My life was directly touched by King Hussein on 1995 October 20. I
answered his CQ on 14.295 MHz and enjoyed a three-minute "ragchew" with
him. JY1 was traveling aeronautical mobile, enroute to the United
Nations in New York City. He insisted on me addressing him simply as
Hussein. In one of the oldest traditions in Amateur Radio, Hussein
upheld that this kinship transverses not only age and nationality,
but also between citizen and head of state!
My QSO with him occurred less than five hours after the launch of
Columbia on STS-73 (how appropriate!), the USML-2 mission. Hussein
was monitoring the WA3NAN space shuttle retransmission frequency
as the 16-day mission unfolded.
<http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-73/mission-sts-73.html>
Recalling his historic two-way contact with Owen Garriott, W5LFL,
on STS-9 in 1983, I struck up a conversation on the latest
educational benefits of SAREX. Hussein was indeed interested in
the program and was pleased to see it develop.
I yielded the frequency for others to get a chance and was rewarded
with how orderly and gentlemanly he conducted the emerging pileup.
Even through the hobby (service) of Amateur Radio, one could
detect King Hussein's heart felt commitment to human dignity
and peace.
Sincerely,
Pat WD8LAQ
===================================================================
Patrick L. Kilroy (ex-743)
SSPP Hitchhiker I&T Engineer Phone: 301-286-1984
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Fax: 301-286-1673
Building 5, New Mail Code 568 E-mail: pat.kilroy@gsfc.nasa.gov
Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 Web: http://sspp.gsfc.nasa.gov
===================================================================
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